Wednesday, September 17, 2008

La hambruna que viene

or the hunger to come....

That's the most pressing fear that regular Cubans have now, that the worst part is still to come in the form of a pandemic and a demonic hunger combined. The hurricane season is far from over, and the government has not taken a single step to alleviate the situation in the island. The informal and independent markets are empty. The prices are being gouged, and there's no state sponsored effort to guarantee food, milk, water, or medication to the victims of the two hurricanes that barreled over Cuba in the past few days.

The talking heads of the government just seem concern on spewing safely manufactured cliches, without answering any concerns of the population or offering any real solution. Raul Castro has not even bothered in speaking to the population of his country about the horrible situation that Cuban face, and there's no indication that the government has even take any measures to address a logical consequence of the destruction of the country's agriculture: hunger.

The tyranny is using the threat of a famine to try to blackmail the U.S of A. into lifting the embargo and it's playing with the xenophobic fears of the politicians making clear that they cannot control a massive exodus if such famine were to occur. The only way hunger will not be a reality in Cuba would be if Cubans from abroad could travel to Cuba without restrictions and if they could deliver the much needed help themselves, in whatever shape, mode, or form they decided that is more convenient, as independent people helping their own.

But here is where the Cuban tyranny jumps and does everything that is in its powers to prevent those contacts to happen, since they would be the beginning of the demise of the tyranny, specially in these times of crisis. Luckily for the Castro's there's a sector of the political powers in the United States who would rather have a testicle burnt with sulphuric acid than seeing Cuban helping Cubans. For some strange political contortion they have bundled the embargo, the remittances, and the trips to Cuba together as if they were the same, when clearly they are not.

I would love to know why some sectors have to do the work of Castro, going against the Cuban family in the most inhuman ways of all. First of all, the extended Cuban family has been redefined by some bureaucrat to reduce it to parents and siblings. Then they decided to violate the rights of the citizens of this country -or at least of some of them- by limiting remittances and controlling travel. In the meantime, you could be an Iraqi and send money to your family in the old country or travel to it, when there's a war going on and terrorist groups operating in their territory. No limitations!

Oh, no... With Cuba it's different. Some "Cubans" actually advise the United States against allowing Cubans to travel to the island, to send money to their relatives, and even against bringing legally to the United States members of their extended families. All with the excuse that otherwise that would be like writing a check to the Castros' piggy bank.

At this point, when Cubans need more help to survive the effects of the hurricanes, they face a lot of restrictions from every possible part, starting with the ones imposed on them by the tyranny, and ending with those who are imposing to them with the "goal of getting rid of the tyranny" while at the same time they become collaborators of the enslavement of the Cuban people by proxy and tyrants -no matter how petty and laughable- by conviction and vocation.

This is the right time to aid the Cuban people, and to question the Cuban tyranny as per its motivations to use the need of the Cuban people as a blackmail tool to pressure the international community and the United States. Also, we should be questioning the US government and its advisers about Cuba on why are they not declaring a humanitarian emergency on Cuba and using the armed forces to deliver the the tyranny refuses to accept, as it was done in Indonesia during the tsumani and in Myanmar during the monsoon. That would be an interest answer.... don't you think? The answer they will not give you is "because it would get rid of the Castros!". These politicians are not about to end their careers just because you want a free Cuba and much because your heart sinks when you see your countrymen starving.

One can safely say that a famine in the largest island in the Caribbean will generate an unprecedented exodus, and only a minority of the Cuban population will remain in the island: the ill, the elderly, the orphans, who are the weakest members of society, and a core of communists who are just going to exploit them even more. Cubans will have to flee to every corner of the world, again. Still, we will have American-Cubans saying "no money to Cuba" and "those newcomers are not like us, they are not political refugees" as if one could dislodge communism (politics, cause) from its disastrous result (economics, effect) It's also interesting to see how many countries offered shelter to deposed dictators of all stripes, but no country in the world demands from the Castros that they step down and live the country.

The famine to come will be even more disastrous than the effects of the hurricanes and the effects of 50 years of communism. Cuba will descend to the eight circle of hell -or literally disappear from the map- if we do not step forward and stop the politicos and the Cuban tyrants dead on their tracks, now.

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